Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Baron Fairfax of Cameron

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Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron (29 March 1584 – 14 March 1648), English parliamentary general, was a son of Thomas Fairfax, whom Charles I in 1627 created Lord Fairfax of Cameron in the Peerage of Scotland.

Born in Yorkshire, Ferdinando Fairfax obtained his military education in the Netherlands, and served as member of the English parliament for Boroughbridge during the six parliaments which met between 1614 and 1629 and also during the Short Parliament of 1640. In May 1640 he succeeded his father as Lord Fairfax, but being a Scottish peer he sat in the English House of Commons as one of the representatives of Yorkshire during the Long Parliament from 1640 until his death; he took the side of the parliament, but held moderate views and desired to maintain the peace. His main seat was Denton Hall in Wharfedale.

In the first Scottish war Fairfax had commanded a regiment in the king's army; then on the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 he became commander of the parliamentary forces in Yorkshire, with Newcastle as his opponent. Hostilities began after the repudiation of a treaty of neutrality entered into by Fairfax with the Royalists.

At first Fairfax met with no success. He was driven from York, where he was besieging the Royalists, to Selby; then in 1643 to Leeds; and after beating off an attack at that place he was totally defeated on 30 June 1643 at the Battle of Adwalton Moor. He escaped to Hull, which he successfully defended against Newcastle from 2 September until 11 October 1643, and by means of a brilliant sally caused the siege to be raised.

Fairfax was victorious at Selby on 11 April 1644, and joining the Scots, besieged York, after which he was present at the Battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644), where he commanded the infantry and was routed. He was subsequently, in July 1644, made Governor of York and charged with the further reduction of the county. In December 1644 he took the town of Pontefract, but failed to secure the castle.

Fairfax resigned his command on the passing of the Self-denying Ordinance, but remained a member of the Committee for the Government of Yorkshire, and was appointed, on 24 July 1645, steward of the manor of Pontefract. He died from an accident on 14 March 1648 and was buried at Bolton Percy in Yorkshire.

Fairfax married twice. By his first wife, Mary, daughter of Edmund Sheffield, 3rd Lord Sheffield (afterwards 1st earl of Mulgrave), he had six daughters and two sons: Thomas, who succeeded him as 3rd lord, and Charles, a colonel of horse, who was killed at Marston Moor.

During his command in Yorkshire, Fairfax engaged in a paper war with Newcastle, and wrote The Answer of Ferdinando, Lord Fairfax, to a Declaration of William, Earl of Newcastle (1642; printed in Rushworth, pt. iii. vol. ii. p. 139); he also published A Letter from . . . Lord Fairfax to . . . Robert, Earl of Essex (1643), describing the victorious sally at Hull.

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Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, was an English parliamentary general. More here: http://bit.ly/f57VBd.

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Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron (29 March 1584 – 14 March 1648), English parliamentary general, was a son of Thomas Fairfax, whom Charles I in 1627 created Lord Fairfax of Cameron in the Peerage of Scotland.

Born in Yorkshire, Ferdinando Fairfax obtained his military education in the Netherlands, and served as member of the English parliament for Boroughbridge during the six parliaments which met between 1614 and 1629 and also during the Short Parliament of 1640. In May 1640 he succeeded his father as Lord Fairfax, but being a Scottish peer he sat in the English House of Commons as one of the representatives of Yorkshire during the Long Parliament from 1640 until his death; he took the side of the parliament, but held moderate views and desired to maintain the peace. His main seat was Denton Hall in Wharfedale.

In the first Scottish war Fairfax had commanded a regiment in the king's army; then on the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 he became commander of the parliamentary forces in Yorkshire, with Newcastle as his opponent. Hostilities began after the repudiation of a treaty of neutrality entered into by Fairfax with the Royalists.

At first Fairfax met with no success. He was driven from York, where he was besieging the Royalists, to Selby; then in 1643 to Leeds; and after beating off an attack at that place he was totally defeated on 30 June 1643 at the Battle of Adwalton Moor. He escaped to Hull, which he successfully defended against Newcastle from 2 September until 11 October 1643, and by means of a brilliant sally caused the siege to be raised.

Fairfax was victorious at Selby on 11 April 1644, and joining the Scots, besieged York, after which he was present at the Battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644), where he commanded the infantry and was routed. He was subsequently, in July 1644, made Governor of York and charged with the further reduction of the county. In December 1644 he took the town of Pontefract, but failed to secure the castle.

Fairfax resigned his command on the passing of the Self-denying Ordinance, but remained a member of the Committee for the Government of Yorkshire, and was appointed, on 24 July 1645, steward of the manor of Pontefract. He died from an accident on 14 March 1648 and was buried at Bolton Percy in Yorkshire.

Fairfax married twice. By his first wife, Mary, daughter of Edmund Sheffield, 3rd Lord Sheffield (afterwards 1st earl of Mulgrave), he had six daughters and two sons: Thomas, who succeeded him as 3rd lord, and Charles, a colonel of horse, who was killed at Marston Moor.

During his command in Yorkshire, Fairfax engaged in a paper war with Newcastle, and wrote The Answer of Ferdinando, Lord Fairfax, to a Declaration of William, Earl of Newcastle (1642; printed in Rushworth, pt. iii. vol. ii. p. 139); he also published A Letter from . . . Lord Fairfax to . . . Robert, Earl of Essex (1643), describing the victorious sally at Hull.

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Constituency

Dates

BOROUGHBRIDGE

1614

BOROUGHBRIDGE

1621

BOROUGHBRIDGE

1624

BOROUGHBRIDGE

1625

BOROUGHBRIDGE

1626

BOROUGHBRIDGE

1628

BOROUGHBRIDGE

1640 (Apr.)

YORKSHIRE

1640 (Nov.) - 14 Mar. 1648

Family and Education

b. 29 Mar. 1584, 1st s. of Sir Thomas Fairfax I* and Ellen, da. of Robert Aske of Aughton, Yorks. educ. privately (Edward Fairfax); G. Inn 1602; vol. Dutch army 1602.1 m. (1) 1608, Mary (d. 2 June 1619), da. of Edmund, 3rd Bar. Sheffield, 3s. (2 d.v.p.) 6da. (1 d.v.p.); (2) 16 Oct. 1646, Rhoda (d. 11 Oct. 1686), da. and coh. of Thomas Chapman, Draper of Soper Lane, London and Wormley, Herts., wid. of Thomas Hussey† of Gonerby, Lincs., 1da.2 kntd. 30 Jan. 1608;3 suc. fa. as 2nd Bar. Fairfax of Cameron [S] 1 May 1640.4 d. 14. Mar. 1648.5 sig. Fer[dinando] Fairfax.

Offices Held

J.p. Yorks. (W. Riding) by 1611-d.;6 commr. sewers 1611, oyer and terminer, Northern circ. 1617-d., subsidy, W. Riding 1621-2, 1624; Privy Seal loans 1625, composition for feudal tenures, N. parts 1626, Forced Loan, W. Riding 1626-7;7 col., militia ft., Yorks. 1639-42;8 commr. Poll Tax, W. Riding 1641, assessment, 1642-4, Yorks. 1644-d., sequestration, 1643, levying money, 1643, excise 1645, Northern Assoc. 1645; steward, honour of Pontefract, Yorks. 1645-d.9

Gen. Yorks. (parl.) 1642-5; gov. Hull, 1643-4, York 1644-5.10

Commr. excise disputes 1645, scandalous offences 1646.11

Biography

Fairfax was ‘sent into the Netherlands to train him up as a soldier’, but his martial father, in whose shadow he lived much of his life, considered him ‘a mere coward at fighting’, albeit ‘a tolerable country justice’. His first marriage, to a daughter of lord president Sheffield, was designed to heal a longstanding rift within the Fairfax family. It also offered him political patronage: Sheffield may have recommended him for a parliamentary seat at the Boroughbridge by-election of 1609. On this occasion Sir Thomas Vavasour was ultimately returned at the behest of lord treasurer Salisbury (Robert Cecil†), but Vavasour’s name was entered on the indenture over an erasure, suggesting that another candidate had originally been intended for the seat.12

Fairfax was subsequently returned for Boroughbridge in 1614, and although his wife was dead and Sheffield out of office by the time of the next election, his family wielded sufficient local interest to ensure his continued re-election until 1640. He was never very active in the Commons: he played no known part in the affairs of the Addled Parliament; while in 1621 he was named to two bill committees, one to clear the title to Temple Newsam, Yorkshire, facilitating its purchase by (Sir) Arthur Ingram* (1 May), and the other to control the practice of moor-burning in the northern counties (26 May). The latter bill was revived in 1624, when Fairfax was again appointed to the committee (13 April). In the same year, he exercised his right (as a Yorkshire MP) to attend two meetings of the committee for the bill to clear encumbrances on Prince Charles’s manor of Goathland, Yorkshire. In 1625, with his father’s election as knight of the shire facing a challenge from Sir John Savile*, he was named to the committee for privileges (21 June), although he is not recorded as having participated in its proceedings. He was named to two other committees, one for the bill to ease clerical subscription to the Canons of 1604 (27 June), and another to enable the trustees of Richard, 3rd earl of Dorset to sell lands to settle his debts (8 July).13

While Fairfax achieved little in Parliament, his letters to his family demonstrate a much greater involvement in current events than the official record would suggest. In December 1620 he reported on the gloomy prospects facing the Elector Palatine following the Battle of the White Mountain, but noted that two of his brothers then heading for the Palatinate as volunteers were, for the moment, in good health. Both fell in the defence of Frankenthal in the following year, while another brother was killed in France attempting to deliver a message to the Huguenot fortress of Montauban; Sir Ferdinando took pains to establish the circumstances of their deaths. In February 1624 he sent his father, then drafting a tract urging intervention in the Palatinate, a lengthy account of Buckingham’s analysis of the breakdown of negotiations for the Spanish Match, while a month later he reported the king’s reluctant agreement to break with Spain, observing that ‘there is nothing yet forwarded in that or any other business, though I doubt not but you have rumours enough in the country of taking arms, and instant war’.14

With his father also at Westminster in 1625, Fairfax had no need to write newsletters, but he resumed his correspondence in the 1626 session. At the outset of the Parliament, he was again named to the privileges committee (9 Feb.), and also to committees for bills to legalize the raising of a county rate for muster-masters (28 Mar.) and to facilitate searches for arms (14 March). In a letter of 24 Mar. he censured the recent expedition to Cadiz under Viscount Wimbledon (Sir Edward Cecil*) for ‘doing ... little with little judgment and less advantage’, noted the evasive answers of the Council of War when questioned about the expenditure of the 1624 subsidies, and summarized the Commons’ dilemma in debating the king’s insistent demands for generous supply:

if we give nothing, we not only incense the king, who is in his own nature extremely stiff, but endanger a ruin of the commonweal, as things now stand; and if we do give, it may perhaps not be employed the right way, and the more we part with, the more we shall want another time to bestow. If we give nothing, we must expect to be dissolved and live in apparent danger from abroad; if we give little, we must expect little from His Majesty in ease of our requests, and not be secure from our enemies.

He also conceded the existence of a credible threat of a Spanish landing. This letter expressed no overt hostility to Buckingham, but Fairfax’s actions in the Commons suggest that he offered some countenance to those who proposed to impeach the duke. Attacks on Buckingham initially focused on the duke’s orders to seize a French ship, the St. Peter, and on 1 Mar. Fairfax joined the attack, asking Sir Francis Stewart* why he had impounded some of the ship’s cargo; Sir John Eliot pounced upon this incident to illustrate his assertion that the duke had exceeded his authority as lord admiral. Later, on 27 Apr., Fairfax served as a teller for the yeas in a motion to go into committee of the whole House, to consider the provocative allegation that Buckingham and Charles had been responsible for poisoning King James. Thereafter, Fairfax kept a low profile, receiving only one other committee nomination, for the bill to punish Sir Robert Sharpeigh, patentee for a duty on Newcastle coal (1 June). He expressed his frustrations in a letter of 9 June:

we do nothing of what the commonweal may receive benefit, and that we intend is still furthest off. We have sat now four months, and the Parliament seemed to end with the first of them. Then we had some good bills ready, and were resolved to give subsidies; now we know not where we are. And certainly His Majesty will refuse his monies rather than satisfy our expectations in the duke, whose greatness, power and courses make us still conceive no safety so long as he continues at this height or is in danger of further growth.

He noted how John Lowther*, one of Buckingham’s creatures, had been knighted and appointed to the Council in the North, while another, Sir John Savile, had been attacked in the Commons, but correctly predicted that the latter would escape censure because of the king’s renewed demands for supply.15

Fairfax’s letters during the 1626 Parliament demonstrate a peculiar equivocation: he was clearly frustrated at the inept conduct of the war with Spain, but did not wish to abandon the Protestant cause in pursuit of a purely domestic vendetta against Buckingham. Thus in the aftermath of the dissolution, whereas he lent a sympathetic ear to his brother-in-law Sir William Constable*, who refused the Forced Loan, his father accepted Savile’s offer of a Scottish peerage and he was himself active in the collection of the Loan. However, when rumours of a fresh Parliament circulated in January 1628, he approached Christopher Wandesford* to offer a pact between his cousin, Henry Belasyse*, and Sir Thomas Wentworth* for the county seats, a combination which defeated the Saviles at the general election. Fairfax was almost invisible during the 1628 session, being named to a single committee for a naturalization bill (7 May). No correspondence survives from this session, but in 1629, arriving late, he forecast ‘a long work, or a short and abrupt conclusion’, citing the question of Arminianism as ‘the greatest that can concern this kingdom’. A week later, he outlined the dispute over John Rolle’s* case:

we endeavour to possess the merchants with their goods, which have been violently taken from them, before the bill of Tunnage and Poundage receive any reading, but we fear some rubs which may make this Parliament very long unless it end in such disturbance.

He also outlined a complaint about Scottish and Irish peerages which had been launched by his own relative, Sir Thomas Belasyse*, who had acquired an expensive English barony only to find himself outranked by Sir Thomas Fairfax II*, who had bought an Irish viscountcy for a quarter of the price he had paid. Fairfax assured his father that the king was unlikely to grant the English peerage absolute precedence, but observed that Belasyse ‘has done himself small honour and occasioned an injury which may justly work an ill affection hereafter’.16

Fairfax maintained an active role in local administration during the 1630s, and took command of his father’s militia regiment during the Bishops’ Wars, but he sided with the radicals in the Long Parliament, and was appointed commander of the parliamentarian forces in the north at the outbreak of the Civil War. He died on 14 Mar. 1648 at Denton, of a gangrenous foot, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Thomas Fairfax†, lord general of the New Model Army, who was recruited to the Rump in 1649.17

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: Simon Healy

Notes 1. GI Admiss.; HMC Hatfield, xii. 208, 320.

2. Clay, Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. ii. 188.

3. Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 144.

4. C142/600/124.

5. Bodl. Add. A119, f. 27.

6.W. Riding Q.S. Recs. ed. J. Lister (York Arch. Soc. rec. ser. liv), 2, 7.

7. Yorks. ERRO, DDBE/27/2; C181/2, f. 200; C212/22/20-23; SR, v. 83; C66/2384/2 (dorse); SP16/44/4; APC, 1626-7, p. 244.

8. Bodl., Fairfax 31, ff. 133-4; HMC Cowper, ii. 228-9; HMC 9th Rep. ii. 432b.

9.SR, v. 150; A. and O. i. 91, 112, 148, 229-30, 544, 643-4, 705-6, 964-5, 1081-2; Historical Collections ed. J. Rushworth, v. 641; LJ, vii. 507.

10.Fairfax Corresp. ed. R. Bell, iii. 21, 51-2; Yorks. Arch. Soc. ms 735.

11.A. and O. i. 691, 853.

12. C. Markham, Great Lord Fairfax, 12; SP14/49/10; C219/35/2/149.

13.CJ, i. 598b, 627b, 764b; Nicholas, Procs. 1621, i. 363; C.R. Kyle, ‘Attendance Lists’, PPE 1604-48 ed. Kyle, 196-7; Procs. 1625, pp. 206, 253, 349.

14. Bodl. Fairfax 30, ff. 145, 152, 160-3; Fairfax Corresp. ed. G.W. Johnson i. pp. lvi-lvii; C. Russell, PEP, 158-9, 189-90.

15.Procs. 1626, ii. 7, 169-70, 279, 386; iii. 84, 340, 406; Fairfax Corresp. ed. Johnson, i. 24-32, 57-61; Russell, 289.

16.Fairfax Corresp. ed. Johnson, i. 68-9, 155-60; APC, 1626-7, pp. 243-4; Wentworth Pprs. ed. J.P. Cooper (Cam. Soc. ser. 4. xii), 287; CD 1628, iii. 300.

17.Fairfax Corresp. ed. Johnson, i. pp. lxxxix-xciv; B. Whitelocke, Memorials, ii. 284

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinando_Fairfax,_2nd_Lord_Fairfax_o...

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Lord Ferdinando Cameron Fairfax was 2nd Baron Fairfax of Cameron. He was a English Parliamentary general. He served in six parliaments between 1614 - 1629, and in the Short Parliament in 1640. House of Commons from Yorkshire. Ferdinando had 6 daughters and 2 sons. Son named Sir Thomas Fairfax succeeds him and son Charles died in battle at Marston Moor.